Combat and maneuver training systems are used to provide valuable experience to military personnel, such as crews of armored vehicles. One system, known as the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System, or MILES and MILES 2000.TM. (Cubic Defense Systems, San Diego, Calif.), is a laser-based training system in which military personnel fire infrared "bullets" as adjuncts to the weapons and vehicles that they would use in actual combat. The simulated fire events cause realistic audio/visual effects and "casualties". The exercise events and casualties can be recorded, replayed and analyzed in detail during so-called After Action Reviews (AARs).
This particular type of combat and maneuver training system is susceptible to various types of manipulation. For example, the infrared sensors which detect the incoming infrared "bullets" can be fooled by painting the simulated battleground with light of the expected wavelength, thereby negating the precision accounted for in the digital date. Also by example, by simply obscuring the field of view of the sensor an incoming "hit" may not be recorded as such. It can be appreciated that over-zealous trainees, seeking to score well during a simulated combat exercise, may be able to significantly skew the results in their favor, while at the same time also lessening the value of the training exercise. In general, the detection of such manipulations can be difficult to accomplish.
It can be further appreciated that this type of training system requires the use of additional hardware (e.g., additional lasers, detectors and support hardware), thus incurring increases in cost, complexity and deployment logistics. For those cases where the training hardware follows the unit into the field, the additional hardware must be securely packed, shipped and accounted for. Before use, the additional lasers, detectors and the like must also be installed on the vehicles that will take part in the training exercise (e.g., tanks and other armored vehicles).
Furthermore, by using laser diodes to simulate weapons flyout, the inherent beam dispersion or beam divergence may not be consistent with the actual dispersion of the round being simulated. For example, the beam divergence for the training system laser diode may actually be several times the typical Circular Error Probability (CEP) of a particular "smart" weapon whose fire is being simulated.